Why the switch to MDM?

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beansandjeans

Why the switch to MDM?

Post by beansandjeans »

Since I installed Mint 13, one little annoyance was the new login screen. It looks cool and sleek and all, but the functionality is reduced compared with GDM in Mint 9 (and I believe some versions in between as well).

In the default mode you have to type in your user name, or you can change the settings around and then you can click on your user name and then put in the password.

Back in Mint 9, by default all you had to do was hit enter and then type in your password. Much simpler, so the new MDM seems to me to be a step backwards if it doesn't even have that option available.

And yes, I know this really isn't the biggest issue in the greater scheme of things, but just one of those little annoyances. (Otherwise I've been quite happy with Mint 13.)

I've since installed GDM and uninstalled MDM, so now things are working the way I want them to, but I just don't see why MDM replaced GDM in the first place. Or if it had to - due to issues with Gnome 3, MATE, Cinnamon, etc. - why it couldn't at least have the option of functioning like GDM did in the earlier versions of Mint...
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mank_in

Re: Why the switch to MDM?

Post by mank_in »

abnvolk

Re: Why the switch to MDM?

Post by abnvolk »

It's just the theme. You can use a theme that has user list :)
But let's update MDM first: Enable the backport repository using Software Sources. Once you've updated MDM, you can use GDM 2 themes without renaming - MDM is a fork of GDM 2 so it's compatible with these themes.
Then you can go to gnome-look.org and download a theme with user list, then install it with MDM Preferences (Login Window).
And in fact many themes with user list are pre-installed in Mint 14 :)
beansandjeans

Re: Why the switch to MDM?

Post by beansandjeans »

mank_in wrote:i think this one is the reason : http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_maya_whatsnew.php#mdm
Hmmm...That says "MDM is a new Display Manager, which code is based on GDM 2.20. It provides graphical configuration tools, themeability, remote, automatic and timed login, event scripting, language selection and it comes with more features than any other Display Manager currently available."

All well and fine with the features and whatnot, but the only feature I'm interested in is for it to work the way it did before in terms of having the default user name already selected so you don't have to type it in or click it.

abnvolk wrote:It's just the theme. You can use a theme that has user list :)
But let's update MDM first: Enable the backport repository using Software Sources. Once you've updated MDM, you can use GDM 2 themes without renaming - MDM is a fork of GDM 2 so it's compatible with these themes.
Then you can go to gnome-look.org and download a theme with user list, then install it with MDM Preferences (Login Window).
And in fact many themes with user list are pre-installed in Mint 14 :)
Well I'm not gonna mess with Mint 14, and probably not any other version before the next LTS unless there ends up being some super duper must-have feature that I just can't wait for. I'm more of the philosophy that you set up the OS, get everything working the way you want, and then stick with it for a few years. I know some folks like to upgrade every six months, but that's just not for me. I was actually quite pleased to read that Mint 13 would be maintained for five years! ;-)

Anyway, I might try the theme method on my other computer, or perhaps on this one if I feel more ambitious. I had played around with the themes that came pre-installed, and indeed some of them had a user list, but you still had to move your hand to the mouse and click on it. None was pre-selected like in the old versions so you could just hit enter and then type your password straight away. (And yes, I know, I'm expending more effort typing all this up here than I would to login maybe a hundred times, but this I find more fun :-P )

One question - you said "Once you've updated MDM, you can use GDM 2 themes without renaming - MDM is a fork of GDM 2 so it's compatible with these themes." Where then would I go to download the default theme for Mint 9 if I wanted to use that one?...
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xenopeek
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Re: Why the switch to MDM?

Post by xenopeek »

Some more info on enabling the backports repository: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2225.
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abnvolk

Re: Why the switch to MDM?

Post by abnvolk »

Maybe it's inside mint-artwork and mint-artwork-gnome from Mint 9 repository? I'm not sure about that...
http://packages.linuxmint.com/list.php?release=Isadora
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Re: Why the switch to MDM?

Post by AlbertP »

About themes, there are a lot of them available here: http://gnome-look.org/?xcontentmode=150
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Re: Why the switch to MDM?

Post by Monsta »

beansandjeans wrote:And yes, I know this really isn't the biggest issue in the greater scheme of things, but just one of those little annoyances.
Well... (I have to apologize for the long quote ahead) :)
So that's what days were like. A bunch of tiny frustrations, and a bunch of tiny successes. But they added up. Even something which seems like a tiny, inconsequential frustration affects your mood. Your emotions don't seem to care about the magnitude of the event, only the quality.

And I started to learn that the days when I was happiest were the days with lots of small successes and few small frustrations.
The more you feel that you can control your environment, and that the things you do are actually working, the happier you are. When you find yourself frustrated, angry, and upset, it's probably because of something that happened that you could not control: even something small. The space bar on your keyboard is not working well. When you type, some of the words are stuck together. This gets frustrating, because you are pressing the space bar and nothing is happening. The key to your front door doesn't work very well. When you try to turn it, it sticks. Another tiny frustration. These things add up; these are the things that make us unhappy on a day-to-day basis. Even though they seem too petty to dwell on (I mean, there are people starving in Africa, for heaven's sake, I can't get upset about space bars), nonetheless they change our moods.
-- from this really really long article by Joel Spolsky

beansandjeans wrote:I had played around with the themes that came pre-installed, and indeed some of them had a user list, but you still had to move your hand to the mouse and click on it. None was pre-selected like in the old versions so you could just hit enter and then type your password straight away.
What's ironic about these "old versions" you mentioned... is that MDM is based on GDM 2.20 while what you've used in Mint 9 is GDM 2.30. :)
The feature you want is just not there. If you need it, keep GDM (since you've already installed it manually) or install LightDM (it has a very simple GTK+ greeter screen with the default selection feature).
bimsebasse

Re: Why the switch to MDM?

Post by bimsebasse »

The bug/feature request for that exact thing (pre-selected user (top from list, if more than one)) is here: https://github.com/linuxmint/mdm/issues/14

It's probably worth voicing agreement if you want the feature request to gain some traction.
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